Radio station set to enlighten listeners

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): The downfall of former president Soeharto has had a tremendous effect on many people. One person who felt an immediate effect was Nor Pud Binarto, a former student activist who found himself unemployed during the Soeharto administration because of his critical stands.

"On May 21, 1998, at 11 a.m., only an hour after Soeharto resigned, I got a call from a friend asking me to manage a radio station," Binarto said.

"So, as Soeharto stepped down, I stepped up."

Radio is not something new for Binarto, 37. He worked at Prambors, Pro2, Trijaya and 5asec before he got the offer to manage Safari. But his career was hampered by restrictions on freedom of expression.

Today, his voice is heard on Porto Folio, a talk show that is aired by JakartaNewsFM (97.4FM) from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

"Radio is a medium of enlightenment," he said. "It is a medium to promote democracy and human rights."

On Friday morning he asked listeners: "Should (President B.J.) Habibie be impeached because of his alleged involvement in the Bank Bali scandal?"

That thundering question received a response from enthusiastic listeners. "I am only an ordinary person," a caller said, "but in my opinion, he should be impeached."

Earlier, Binarto invited the audience to comment on the hearing of former Bank Bali president Rudy Ramli at the House of Representatives on Thursday.

As soon as your call was answered, you were on the air. There was no censorship, but Binarto would end the call if the conversation was dull. He also criticized those whose ideas he considered unreasonable or unclear. But he is not overly firm. He is relaxed and discusses the serious matters in a light manner.

Binarto was born in Yogyakarta and went to Kolose De Brito high school there. From 1980 to 1983 he studied cinematography in Koln, Germany. Returning to Indonesia, he went to Parahyangan Catholic University and the Bandung Institute of Technology. He did not finish his studies at the institute, but graduated from Parahyangan in 1989 with a degree in communications sciences.

His mother is a dentist and his father a professor of social sciences. "I think my (family) environment has greatly influenced my way of thinking," he said.

Still single, Binarto spends most of his time at his office on Jl. Alam Elok in Pondok Indah, South Jakarta. "I am married to my ideas," he said.

Below is an excerpt of The Jakarta Post interview with Binarto:

Question: You said that radio is a medium of enlightenment. Could you elaborate?

Answer: In 1984, when I was still at Prambors, I met Bapak Yusuf Ronodipuro, the first director of RRI (Radio Republik Indonesia). He told me that history shows that radio is the medium of political expression. Before independence, radio greatly influenced the cognitive process of our political figures. It was the underground instrument of sociopolitical enlightenment.

So, radio also has had a social responsibility throughout history.

In 1991, urban society started to hear about talk shows. I joined Trijaya and managed the Jakarta Round Up talk show. I used the intellectual approach to meet the needs of our listeners.

But in 1994 the show was banned because I was considered to be too critical. Well, I was told that it was because of changes in management.

Politically, I made radio a medium to promote human rights and democracy.

I joined Pro2 in 1996, where I hosted Selamat Pagi Jakarta, but this only lasted nine months. Later I became the general manager of 5asec. Early in 1998, however, I was kicked out.

From then until May 1998, I was jobless.

Soeharto stepped down on May 21 at 10 a.m., and an hour later at 11 a.m. I got a call. I was offered a job managing Safari. The radio station was facing hard times; they had the equipment, but no money.

So, you see, as Soeharto stepped down, I stepped up.

Q: What did you do with the radio station?

A: I experimented with several friends, former political prisoners who were in jail during the New Order era: Ahmad Taufik, Fadrul Rachman, Tri Agus and Andi Saputra. We discussed many hot issues on our talk show, reported on demonstrations, etc.

For the first four months we were not paid.

Ours was community radio; it was the listeners who paid us. They sent money to our bank account. We got Rp 2 million a week and a lot of rice. A three-by-four meter room was filled with rice and we distributed it to the needy.

Q: Far Eastern Economic Review wrote about us in September 1998. We were also in Tempo when it reappeared in October.

A: But in October 1998, Safari management dismissed us. They said that they had to do it because we could not make a profit, but we know that in fact they were intimidated by the military.

Later, I made a proposal to prodemocracy individuals, especially economists, to make radio a medium of enlightenment. I also established the Alliance of Independent Radio to counter the Association of Indonesian Private Commercial Radio Stations, which was chaired by Tutut (Soeharto's eldest daughter, Siti Hardiyati Rukmana).

Our project proposal received a good response from many individuals. Sorry, I cannot mention names. They took over the management of Safari and we set up NewsFM.

The new radio station went on the air in April. There are now 30 people working for NewsFM. All of them are young people, about 24 years old. This radio station is for them. I will leave later, maybe after one year.

We have a 24-hour news radio concept. Everything is news, no music. So far we are on the air for 22 hours, from 5 a.m. to 3 a.m. About 11 hours are filled with news and talk shows with an intellectual approach.

Our biggest problem here is the process of democratization. We are trying to deal with it through the radio.

There are several experts who have become our regular hosts -- in print media you call them columnists. They include Prajoto, a lawyer who specializes in banking issues, political observer JB Kristiadi from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, sociologist Tamrin Amal Tomagola from the University of Indonesia and human rights lawyer Frans Hendra Winarta. Every Thursday on Kesaksian (Witness), a member of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence interviews a victim of violence. Dono (Wahyu Sardono, a top comedian and a graduate of the University of Indonesia's School of Political Science) has a satirical show every Sunday. Economist Sri Mulyani is expected to join us starting on Tuesday.

Q: What has the public's response been?

A: Maybe the majority of society still reject us, but a certain layer of society accepts us. We will keep on working on it. We have to be optimistic.

Q: CNN in the first two years did not get any ads at all, but now it plays an important role in the political world.

A: Radio is playing a big role in promoting democracy. How do you see democracy in Indonesia?

There are two main problems. First, the fact that the New Order government is still in power as represented by Habibie.

Second, we have a military government. In a democratic country, there should not be a dual function of the military.

So, we must reject Habibie and the military.

Q: Is that why you brought up the issue of the need to impeach Habibie on your talk show this morning?

A: In the Bank Bali scandal, it is clear that Habibie has lied to the public. That is reason for impeachment. And a no-confidence vote should be held by the legislature.

Q: Aren't you afraid that one day your program or radio station will be banned?

A: I remember Goenawan Mohamad (a former editor of Tempo magazine) saying that he was like the pilot of an airplane which was being hijacked...

But I don't think we will be banned; the government would be in big trouble if they banned us.

I don't only work here. We have the Alliance of Independent Radio, the Alliance of Campus Radio and the Alliance of Rural Radio.

These rural radio stations are especially important because so far these areas have been dominated by (state radio) RRI. We are currently working with some prodemocracy figures like Aristedes Katopo, and I heard that USAID agreed to help us.

As for campus radio, I think the problem in our student movement is that they do not have the media for their political platform. There is the print media, but that is not effective. Judging from our reading habits, radio is more effective. There is a lot of space on the AM band.

Q: Don't we have any campus radio stations here?

A: No. The foundation of Trisakti University sold its radio station, MS3, to a private company. ARH, which was established by former student activists of the 1966 generation, is not managed by people from campuses. Both radio stations fail to express the students' voice.

We have discussed the idea of setting up a students' radio station with a number of universities and they agreed with us.

Q: When will you realize these ideas?

A: We will discuss them at the congress of the Alliance of Independent Radio next October.